I was jealous of A's fans when I was growing up
by jt (2024-04-05 12:53:22)

In reply to: And that quote was under a different owner  posted by sprack

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They had 4 recent championships to celebrate by 1990 (relatively speaking), 3 straight rookie of the years, a great stadium (though it was big, it was still a nice place to take in a game and the whole retro stadium stuff hadn't taken off yet), and a great owner (Haas) with a great payroll.

The Giants had been winning recently (good run from 86-89 at that point), had brought up some decent players (but no rookie of the year types, though Will would have been in the running if he hadn't missed so much time--story of his career, I suppose) but they had a shit stadium and a shit owner who couldn't get anything done and who insisted on public money for a stadium and that was always a longshot. To be fair, it probably would have happened in the 1989 election but the earthquake screwed it up and that POS owner of the Kings at the time (Lugenbill?) started a campaign of disinformation claiming that the funds used to build the new stadium would be diverted from quake relief funds (which wasn't true, but that never stops these guys).

Fast forward 2 years and Oakland started losing some of their stars and came back to earth. Lurie tried to sell the Giants to a group headed by Mike Piazza's dad (I think) that was going to move the team to Tampa Bay and MLB pulled out all the stops and forced him to consider local buyers. A group led by Safeway Chairman Peter Magowan stepped in and bought the team, fixed the stadium up as much as one could possibly hope for at that point, signed the best hitter I have ever seen, and worked to get a stadium built with no public money. Now they're swimming in cash with a paid off stadium, real estate projects in the vicinity, and their own TV contract.

Wow - the irony of FIsher being part of that SF group...
by Irish2003  (2024-04-10 15:05:27)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

No dog in this fight for this Braves fan, but it is sad seeing a team with rich history move to Vegas, especially after the Raiders just did the same. I'd certainly defer to you, my fellow 49ers (Montana!) fan, but man, I'd think there would be some deep pockets in the Bay Area who could keep them local. Like you said, the Giants reboot has worked out very well, and as a neutral, I'd rather see a catalyst for Oakland rather than one for a city that is already red hot.

"In 1992, John purchased a stake in the San Francisco Giants with his father, as part of a locally-formed investment group's effort to prevent the franchise from relocating to the Tampa Bay area.[1] His father's memoir describes John as having been anxious about rumors in the early 1990s that the Giants could move to Florida. He told his father: "I think we ought to try to put a deal together to keep the Giants here"
Joe Lacob (Warriors owner) wants to but them
by jt  (2024-04-13 17:04:23)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

but as he has said multiple times, "you cannot buy what isn't for sale." Larry Ellison (CEO of Oracle) has expressed interest in numerous bay area teams in the past (A's, Warriors, Niners maybe Sharks) would likely be a candidate as well, but he's getting up in years.
Huizenga & Peter O'Malley quashed the Giants' move to TB....
by Scoop80  (2024-04-05 14:24:36)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Huizenga didn't want another MLB team in FL and O'Malley wanted to maintain the rivalry. O'Malley likely carried more clout, but MLB wanted Huizenga's deep pockets behind an expansion franchise.